The report is at: http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Markets/WhlMkts/Discovery/Documents1/Project_Discove ry_FebConDoc_FINAL.pdf News articles at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8494899.stm http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/household- bills/7144386/British-households-risk-unaffordable-energy-bills-Ofgem- warns.html http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/sse-says-customers-using-less-gas-electricity-reuters_molt-20a544628846.html A little interpretation: Quote: “There is a need for unprecedented levels of investment to be sustained over many years in difficult financial conditions and against a background of increased risk and uncertainty.” To translate, “the fat cats and their shareholders have […]
Read MoreMini Steam Powered Generating Sets
10 kw – 3kw power output to run on renewable energy ie wood and other biomass To see power plant for sale or wanted, press SELECT CATEGORY and choose FOR SALE/WANTED to place your power plant FOR SALE or WANTED ad, register on the site and wait to be made an author, then post it. […]
Read MoreEuropean hydro capacity compared to the demand for electricity
Hydro Capacity in the EU-15 and Norway 22 days the energy storage capacity of hydro across Western Europe, (the EU15 countries plus Norway and Iceland), expressed in terms of average daily electricity demand 177 TWh the storage capacity, put another way. That’s the same as 0.604 quads, 22MTCe, 15 MTOe, 152Pcal, 637PJ, or 465kWh per person across […]
Read MoreCommercial Opportunities for Back-Up Generation (including diesel generators) and Load Reduction via National Grid, the National Electricity Transmission System Operator (NETSO) for England, Scotland, Wales and Offshore.
This article written by: Mark Duffield Senior Account Manager Contracts and Settlements UK Transmission – Network Operations National Grid National Grid House Warwick Technology Park Gallows Hill Warwick CV34 6DA
Read MoreFrom Dr John Constable. Note on the Renewable Energy Foundation
Dear Mr Andrews:
I posted the following response re. REF yesterday, but it seems stuck in the moderation queue. Could you please accelerate this.
Regards,
John Constable.
Note on the Renewable Energy Foundation
The postings concerning REF on the Claverton list have been drawn to my attention, and since there is a good deal of confusion in some of the remarks I thought it might be helpful if I, John Constable, Director of Policy and Research for REF, were to post a response. [More…]
1. Renewable Energy Foundation (REF) is a UK registered charity, and has been since 2004. It has no political affiliation, and publishes data and analysis on the renewable sector, as well as engaging in educational activities.
2. When first created Noel Edmonds kindly agreed to be chairman, and he remains in that role.
3. REF is guided by its board of Trustees, and advised by the Technical Advisory Group (see http://www.renewable-energy-foundation.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=108&Itemid=72). Those listed on TAG are not members of REF, but independent experts who have agreed to advise the Foundation on policy and the conduct of research.
4. REF does not, now, have members; it has Friends of the Foundation, and the charity is supported by private donation only. The identity of these donors is public information, though they are numerous and cannot all be listed here. Some of the largest charitable trust making donations to charities have given money, including the Rausing, and the Cadogan trusts. In addition, the entrepreneur Vincent Tchenguiz gave generously to support the creation of the Renewable Energy Data files, described in more detail below.
5. Renewable Energy Forum Ltd is the charity’s not-for-profit sister company, and was created at the same time as the charity.
6. The organisation has not recently divided, though in the last two weeks Renewable Energy Foundation has moved to a new web site, www.renewable-energy-foundation.org.uk, while Renewable Energy Forum has taken over www.ref.org.uk. For the time being the latter website will host the archive of the charity, while material is gradually transferred.
7. REF aims to improve understanding of the renewable sector by supporting and in some cases publishing technical research.
8. For example, in 2005 we supported two articles on Danish wind power in Proceedings of the ICE, both by Hugh Sharman.
‘Why Wind Power Works for Denmark’, Proceedings of ICE: Civil Engineering, 158 (May 2005), 66-72
‘Why the UK should build no more than 10 GW of Wind Capacity’, Proceedings of the ICE: Civil Engineering, 158 (November 2005), 161-169.
Read MoreUsing standby diesel generators for short term reserve to support main power grids – potentially good news from National Grid
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Hi Dave
Firstly apologies for not getting back to you about Bernard’s note sooner. I read the attached email above with interest as it’s always good to see that there is interest out there in providing Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR, previously known as “Standing Reserve”) from new sources, whether someone is interested in approaching us directly or through an aggregator. I did note that in your last line you said that if contracts could be made available for a longer period of time then this might elicit more interest from parties. On that front there is potentially good news, the changes that we introduced to the STOR contract form a year or two back, allow users to tender for a contract of up to 10 years duration, and as part of the STOR review that my colleague Craig Maloney is undertaking at the moment we may potentially be looking to extend that capability to even longer term contracts.
Read MoreGasification gets The Guardian treatment
Comments are invited on the two gasification articles found on the The Guardian website today. They seem to have been written on the basis of a Press Release, without much background checking. I don’t want a bad word said about the author, Alok Jha, who is lovely, but I really think we need to unpack […]
Read MoreHydrogen – the green currency of the future
All governments have pledged to improve energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions; this effectively means that the world must move to:
Electricity from nuclear, renewable or decarbonised sources
Hydrogen from renewable or decarbonised sources
biomass derived methane gas or hydrocarbon liquids or
heat as a by-product, or from biomass, solar or geothermal sources.
Of these electricity and hydrogen are purely manufactured energy vectors competing as intermediaries between energy sources and final consumers. In recent years the tide seems to have moved to electricity as the ultimate solution, but this article will take issue with this. This is principally because of the severe cost implications associated with either electricity storage or its corollary – demand side management.
Read Morea regular up to date source of hard info on renewable energy- Renew
Need a regular up to date source of hard info on renewable energy? Renew is a 36 page newsletter on renewable energy developments and policy which has been produced by Open University Professor Dave Elliott without a break bi-monthly since 1979. It’s widely seen as a reliable and up to date source of information, news […]
Read MoreClaverton Group's comment on BBC Radio 4 "You and Your's" on the Energy Gap 13th October 2009 – its cheaper to save than to build.
David Porter of the AIP (founded originally by David Andrews as the AIEP to counter the monolithic anti market and anti chp bias of the CEGB – Ed.) needs reminding that grants for A++ fridges etc (say we offer £30 to reduce baseload from 600 to 120 kWh/yr = £750 to save 1 kW) are cheaper […]
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